To an airline, both you and your baggage present basically the same issue: how much you weigh. Samoa Air, which flies around the south Pacific, figures that it may as well charge you that way: they weigh you and your bags together, and you pay so much per kilogram, based on the length of the trip. (A short hop might be $1/kg; if you’re headed to Australia it might be more than $4/kg.)

“Airlines don’t run on seats, they run on weight, and particularly the smaller the aircraft you are in the less variance you can accept in terms of the difference in weight between passengers … Anyone who travels at times has felt they have been paying for half of the passenger next to them.”

Decidedly unsvelte as I am, I think this is a swell idea, if only because it’s totally at odds with today’s nickel-and-dime-you-to-death fares and fees.

5 comments

Roy »

What if they factor in the weight of the carry on and other luggage? That might even it out between the genders.

I actually don’t have that much of a problem with the idea. (Then again: it would take something really major to get me to fly EVER again). And I’m far closer in size Brunnhilde than I am to Kate Moss.

I try not to look at the price too closely. Travel is expensive and quibbling over anything less $100 is probably a waste of time. You might be able to save $100, but while you are doing that a $200 expense is creeping into your itinerary. This whole Iowa debacle is going to cost a bundle, but that’s just the way it is.

Roy, how that discriminates against anybody? Everyone is presented with the same price – per unit of weight. On the contrary, it is the current practice of “equal price tickets” that discriminate against people of lesser weigh compared to heavier passengers.